# How SurveyorSuite handles AI — a surveyor's guide > Built around the RICS Professional Standard on AI (effective 9 March 2026). **URL:** https://surveyorsuite.co.uk/ai **Last reviewed:** 2026-04-24 **Publisher:** SurveyorSuite Ltd **Topic:** RICS AI compliance for UK surveyors; AI features in professional surveying software --- ## What AI does in SurveyorSuite Only one feature uses generative AI — the one that matters for RICS §4.2 compliance. Everything else — photos, measurements, layout, calculations — is deterministic code. ### Generative AI (in scope for RICS §4.2) - **Field Notes → report drafting.** Paste your on-site notes when creating a new survey. Anthropic's Claude converts them into structured report content, populates the relevant fields, and applies your chosen rating codes. You review, edit, and sign off before export. - **Writing-style tuning.** Phrases you mark as favourites in your phrase library are sent as tone examples alongside your notes, so the generated draft reads in your voice rather than a generic "AI voice". This sits inside the Field Notes feature — no separate setting. ### Speech-to-text transcription (not generative AI) SurveyorSuite also offers dictation on every text field. This is a speech-to-text transcription — your own words, typed out automatically. It does not generate new content, reason about your input, or take professional decisions, so it is **not** covered by the RICS §4.2 reliability-decision requirement. It **is** covered by §3.1 data-protection duty and §4.3 Terms of Engagement disclosure, both of which we support. - **On the web app** — uses your browser's built-in Web Speech API (Google for Chrome, Microsoft for Edge, Apple for Safari). Audio goes directly from your browser to your browser vendor; SurveyorSuite never sees it. Only the transcribed text is saved. - **On the mobile apps** — uses your device's built-in speech recognition (Apple SFSpeechRecognizer on iOS, Android RecognitionService on Android). Runs on-device where the platform supports it; audio is not stored by SurveyorSuite. --- ## What AI doesn't do The surveyor is always the accountable professional. The AI does **not**: - **Auto-export reports.** Every PDF and DOCX is issued manually by the named surveyor. - **Make final professional decisions.** It drafts — the surveyor reviews, edits, and signs off. - **Run without disclosure.** If AI was used, the exported report includes an AI Disclosure block naming which categories of output (text, photo analysis, research) were AI-assisted, plus a reliability attestation from the surveyor. - **Train Anthropic's Claude on your data.** Field notes and reports are never used to train Anthropic's models — that is an explicit commitment in their Commercial Terms of Service (§B, Customer Content, effective 17 June 2025): *"Anthropic may not train models on Customer Content from Services."* This applies uniformly across direct API, Amazon Bedrock, and Google Cloud Vertex AI. Speech-to-text uses your browser or device's speech APIs (Google / Microsoft / Apple); their handling of voice input is governed by their own privacy policies. --- ## What surveyor users need to do for RICS compliance The RICS Professional Standard *Responsible use of artificial intelligence in surveying practice* (effective 9 March 2026) places the responsibility on **the regulated member or firm**, not on the software. SurveyorSuite is designed to make that easier. You still need to: - **Apply professional judgement** before accepting any AI output. Every AI-assisted section should be reviewed on its own merits — not rubber-stamped. - **Include AI disclosure in your Terms of Engagement.** SurveyorSuite ships default RICS-aligned clauses covering AI use, scope, PI cover, opt-out, contest and redress. The clauses live in two places: **Settings → Report Terms** (for surveyors who send ToE by email), and the **CRM's Terms Templates** (for Practice-plan users whose clients sign via the client portal). Both surfaces draw from the same canonical clause set and can be adapted to your firm's wording. - **Don't paste confidential client context into AI.** Health information, financial detail, disputes, divorce, or any personal data the client hasn't given you written consent to share with an AI system — keep it out of the Field Notes box. - **Keep a firm-level AI register and risk register.** An AI system + risk register tool is coming to Settings for firm admins — meanwhile, contact SurveyorSuite support if you need help with your RICS compliance file. --- ## What SurveyorSuite does behind the scenes - **Model.** AI requests go to Anthropic's Claude family of models via their commercial API. SurveyorSuite may vary the model version per template to match task complexity; this does not change what is disclosed in the exported report. - **No training on your data.** Anthropic does not train their models on data submitted via the API. Their Commercial Terms of Service state (§B, Customer Content, effective 17 June 2025): *"Anthropic may not train models on Customer Content from Services."* Applies uniformly across direct API, Amazon Bedrock, and Google Cloud Vertex AI. - **Audit trail.** Every AI generation is logged in an audit trail tied to the surveyor's account. The log is visible to the surveyor and to SurveyorSuite platform staff, and is retained alongside the report record for PI-insurance retention periods. - **Surveyor sign-off.** A qualified surveyor reviews and signs off every AI-assisted section before the report is exported. The exported report's AI Disclosure block includes a reliability attestation to this effect. - **Transient handling at Anthropic.** Prompts and responses are held transiently by Anthropic for abuse monitoring per their API terms; SurveyorSuite does not retain them beyond the audit trail shown above. --- ## Supplier Due Diligence Pack Under RICS §4.1, firms must carry out written due diligence on each AI supplier they use and retain the responses on file. SurveyorSuite provides a one-page Supplier Due Diligence Pack covering environmental impact, training data provenance, liability terms, and data-protection confirmations. Download: https://surveyorsuite.co.uk/downloads/rics-ai-supplier-pack.pdf If the download is not yet live, email support@surveyorsuite.co.uk and SurveyorSuite will send the current version directly. --- ## Sources and verification Every factual claim on this page is verifiable against primary sources. - **Anthropic Commercial Terms of Service** — https://www.anthropic.com/legal/commercial-terms — the no-training-on-your-data commitment is in §B (Customer Content), effective 17 June 2025. - **Anthropic Privacy Center — commercial customers** — https://privacy.claude.com/en/collections/10663361-commercial-customers — summary of data-handling practices that apply to API / Claude Enterprise customers (distinct from consumer Claude.ai). - **RICS Professional Standard** — *Responsible use of artificial intelligence in surveying practice*, 1st edition (September 2025), effective 9 March 2026. Free download from https://www.rics.org/profession-standards/rics-standards-and-guidance (search: "responsible use of artificial intelligence"). ISBN 978 1 78321 555 3. - **SurveyorSuite in-app help** — AI & Voice-to-Text section in the application's help centre (surveyor-facing reference). If a link above is broken or the source has moved, email support@surveyorsuite.co.uk. --- ## About this document This markdown document mirrors the content at https://surveyorsuite.co.uk/ai. It is provided for LLM crawlers, AI chat assistants, and researchers who prefer markdown over HTML when citing primary sources. **Canonical URL:** https://surveyorsuite.co.uk/ai **Markdown mirror:** https://surveyorsuite.co.uk/ai.md **Published:** 2026-04-24 **Last reviewed:** 2026-04-24 **Publisher:** SurveyorSuite Ltd **Contact:** support@surveyorsuite.co.uk **Jurisdiction:** United Kingdom (RICS members + similarly qualified surveyors) ## Related resources on surveyorsuite.co.uk - Homepage: https://surveyorsuite.co.uk/ - Terms of Service: https://app.surveyorsuite.co.uk/legal/terms - Privacy Policy: https://app.surveyorsuite.co.uk/legal/privacy - Beta signup: https://surveyorsuite.co.uk/beta - LLM-oriented site summary: https://surveyorsuite.co.uk/llms.txt